Arkansas House will consider proposal to remove and replace entire State Library Board

Above: Kristin Stuart (left) expresses opposition to Senate Bill 640, co-sponsored by Rep. Howard Beaty (right), R-Crossett, before the House Committee on State Agencies and Governmental Affairs on Monday, April 14, 2025. The bill would reconstitute the Arkansas State Library Board. (Tess Vrbin/Arkansas Advocate)

Opponents call Republican-led effort a “power grab”; supporters decry current board’s “dysfunction”

By Tess Vrbin, Arkansas Advocate

An Arkansas House committee approved a proposal Monday to remove all seven members of the State Library Board and allow Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders to replace them later this year.

Senate Bill 640 passed the Senate Thursday with support from 27 Republicans. Sen. Jonathan Dismang, R-Searcy, and Rep. Howard Beaty, R-Crossett, filed the bill late Wednesday night, less than two hours after Senate Bill 536 hit a dead end with a week left in the legislative session.

Beaty was among a bipartisan group of members of the House Committee on State Agencies and Governmental Affairs to vote against SB 536. The bill would have abolished both the Arkansas State Library and its board and transferred their powers and responsibilities to the state Department of Education.

Beaty told the same committee Monday that the current board should be replaced because of its “dysfunction” and “infighting.”

“There were legitimate concerns that were raised, and those haven’t been addressed,” he said. “[It shows] the lack of consideration of what we need in this state and what our constituents are telling us.”

Sen. Dan Sullivan, R-Jonesboro, filed SB 536 last month in response to the State Library Board’s failure to pass two measures he requested as conditions for him to drop his promise to abolish the board.

Sullivan has targeted the State Library for its affiliation with the American Library Association, which he claims is a leftist political organization, and for the board’s refusal to adopt policies directing public libraries to keep certain materials out of the hands of minors.

The board rejected both efforts with a 4-3 vote in March. The latter would have created nonbinding policies to protect children from “sexually explicit” content in libraries and detached the State Library from the ALA.

The three board members who supported Sullivan’s requests were all Sanders appointees: former Republican state senator Jason Rapert of Conway, who moved to approve the requests; Shari Bales of Hot Springs, whom the Senate confirmed alongside Rapert; and Sydney McKenzie of Rogers, who joined the board in January and is married to GOP Rep. Brit McKenzie.

Rapert has been the board’s most outspoken advocate for keeping “sexually explicit” content out of children’s reach and has called for the board’s abolition due to the majority’s consistent refusal to back his efforts.

Committee debate
SB 640 would require the seven new members to draw lots determining how their terms will be staggered, ending between one and seven years from when the bill becomes law. Subsequent appointees would serve seven-year terms, the current length of time board members serve.

Those terms end in October every year, and Rep. Julie Mayberry reminded the committee that Sanders will be able to appoint a new board member in just a few months.

The Republican lawmaker from Hensley said she would not support SB 640 because she personally knows and respects a State Library Board member.

“I know her work and her dedication to students, to families across the state is exemplary,” Mayberry said. “There’s no reason to eliminate every single position on this board.”

Lupe Peña de Martinez of Mabelvale is a former principal at a public school in East End, which is in Mayberry’s House district, and her term on the State Library Board is currently set to expire in 2028.

At the March board meeting in which Sullivan’s two requested motions failed, Peña de Martinez made a successful motion to create nonbinding policies aimed at protecting children in libraries while honoring the First Amendment and library material selection standards. All three Sanders appointees voted against the motion.

Nothing in SB 640 would prevent current State Library Board members from being reappointed, said Rep. David Ray, R-Maumelle. He and other Republicans expressed support for the bill as an alternative to SB 536, particularly since SB 640 does not involve the Department of Education in the State Library’s responsibilities. Lawmakers and members of the public both included this as a reason to oppose SB 536.

Mayberry joined the committee’s three Democrats in voting against SB 640.

House Minority Leader Andrew Collins, D-Little Rock, challenged Beaty’s assertion about State Library Board “dysfunction.”

“They are continuing to have meetings [and] they are continuing to make decisions, even if they’re not the decisions that some people would like,” Collins said. “It’s a functional board. It’s just a board that some people disagree with.”

Collins said he did not believe the Legislature should set a precedent of reconstituting state boards if some lawmakers are frustrated with them. Beaty said he disagreed and was “not concerned in the slightest” about setting such a precedent.

Kristin Stuart of Little Rock, the only audience member to speak against SB 640, agreed with Collins that the proposal is a “power grab.” She said reconstituting the board would “disrupt its mission” of supporting Arkansas libraries and preserving people’s access to information and learning.

“[SB 640 is] opening the door for political appointees who may not have the experience, objectivity or commitment to intellectual freedom that the board requires,” Stuart said.

The State Library Board is scheduled to meet the second Friday in May and in August. If SB 640 passes the House this week and if Sanders signs it, it will go into effect Aug. 1, and it gives Sanders 30 days to replace the board.

The Arkansas Advocate is a nonprofit, nonpartisan news organization dedicated to tough, fair daily reporting and investigative journalism that holds public officials accountable and focuses on the relationship between the lives of Arkansans and public policy.